An International Affair
by gnbrules
Summary: To Barney, traveling around the world with his hot wife sounds legen—wait for it—dary. Robin agrees.


**An International Affair**

**Summary: To Barney, traveling around the world with his hot wife sounds legen—wait for it—dary. Robin agrees.**

**A/N: The finale was AU, and this (and every fic along these lines) is real, and no one will ever convince me otherwise.**

"It'll be hard, you know," Robin says, and Barney's eyes draw up immediately to hers over their take-out boxes, a dirty little smile playing over his face. She rolls her eyes at the joke he doesn't need to say. "I mean, not to sound like a narcissist," she tries again, and it's his turn to roll his eyes.

"We'll see how that works out, Miss I-watch-myself-on-the-news-during-sex-sometimes-and-wink-at-myself," he smiles. "I approve though, so continue."

"What I'm saying is now that I'm getting kind of big at work, in demand and all, I'll be traveling a lot. Long distance might be hard to do this early into our marriage...do you worry about that at all, Barney?"

He savors his bite of orange chicken, licks his lips in a delicious way that suddenly has her ready to ignore any difficult conversations and just do their old "or...or..." standby. Still, she manages to restrain herself while waiting for his answer.

"No, Robin, I'm not worried at all."

"How can you be so sure?" she asks, and only now does she realize how strong this fear really is for her, that this might be a thing to tear them apart.

He leans in across the couch towards her, lingers just an inch from her face. His breath smells of Chinese food, and if it were any other guy, she'd probably be a little grossed out. But it's _Barney _and he makes even that hot as hell. "Because, Scherbatsky, I'm going with you as often as I can. Traveling the world with my hot and successful wife? I can't think of anything more legendary."

It's a relief the likes of which she's never known. She kisses him so hard it knocks his carton of rice out of his hands and his head turns in its direction. "Hey, I was still eating that."

Her hand to his cheek, turning his face gently back towards hers. "Or...or..." And she kisses him again.

* * *

The first place her work sends them both is Vienna, and Ted sends them off with a list of 'structurally magnificent buildings' he all but begs them to visit on his behalf. Well, they do visit each one and take enough pictures for Ted-the-nerd to salivate over, but decide it better not to mention that they also banged (and took some other pictures he'll _never _see) in every single one.

In Beijing she learns he really does know his way around, and the language, and she's surprised by how much that kind of turns her on. It's not a romantic-sounding dialect by any means, but he whispers exotic words to her as he kisses her neck and she's helpless. "What's that mean?" she asks, almost afraid the translation will disappoint. _"Every day with you is a miracle."_ he says, and that's what he does to her – makes her believe in miracles, like she hasn't done in years. China suits them both.

It isn't just international news she covers, either, and Barney never knew there was an entire rest of the country to be explored. Red rocks and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yellowstone in Wyoming, and he'll never admit it, but now that he's seen the west coast and _her _in a bikini in the California sun, he might just prefer it to New York.

There are hellish summers spent near the equator, and they spend every possible second out of their clothes just for the sake of coolness. There are brutal winters in the Great White North, and she laughs at him for bundling up while she's still in a tank top. He mutters, "Can't believe I followed you to Canada." At the sound of her laugh, however, he promptly forgets to be cold.

She gets hit on in Venice by Italian men, who recognize her from the news. They call her bella and whistle in her general direction. He gets jealous and a black eye out of the encounter, but boy does that get her attention back on him. He's never been more grateful for her wounded warrior kink.

Not all the places they go, however, are nice ones. Neither of them can really bear the underdeveloped nations, not for selfish reasons, but because they see some of the true horrors of the world. Starving children and filthy streets in Niger, and there's not much they can do in the long run. She spends her days reporting on atrocities and he spends his days researching ways to help. He donates a significant amount to some reputable charities, even though it doesn't feel like much. She comes back to the hotel near tears one night, having spent too long seeing too much pain. They don't talk about it. They don't need to. He just holds her and she holds him back.

Seasons pass in weeks and hotels, tourist sites and off-the-beaten path attractions. There are boring places and exotic places and place of all temperaments and types. They're frequent fliers in the mile high club, so much so that they should be getting reward points by now. Sometimes he stays behind if he's needed in New York, but he's still doing undercover work for the FBI and GNB has corrupt branches in almost every nation, so that's not usually the case. He updates the blog regularly, which has now become more about travel than the bro-code and plays, but still with a regular boner joke of the day. Even those take on a decidedly more international flair.

One day, she comes back from reporting a story to find him looking all worried and in a state of panic in their London hotel. She asks him what's the matter and he offers up a tirade before she gets to the bottom of it – he found a gray hair while she was away. She laughs at that, tells him she knows for fact it's not his first one, and when he looks even more distressed, she smiles. "Barney, calm down. I'm really looking forward to you becoming a silver fox, honestly." And when he thinks it through, as long as Robin still finds him hot, what else in the world (which he's seen a lot of by now) could possibly matter?

There are times he can't go with her, though, and those are hard. For three weeks he stays in New York while she covers a story in Iceland, and she misses him so much that she does something she hasn't done in recent memory. She sits down and writes him a letter. He'll probably mock her for resorting to snail mail, but she wants him to have something physical, something tangible. Something to hold onto with his hands and know that she spent time tracing those words and his name into paper. And he does tease her for it over the phone the day he gets it, telling her she might as well be Ted and his VCR, but she can hear the smile in his voice and that's the highlight of her trip.

After Iceland she takes some time off and so does he. Much of this impromptu vacation is spent in their bedroom, rechristening New York as home. It feels stabilizing, reenergizing, perfect. The gang even manages a few nights at MacLaren's, and they feel the years fall away. The kids are getting big, starting to really form their personalities now. Marvin's nearly all Marshall in temperament, and Penny's so outright brash that no one is entirely sure where she picked it up from. But she idolizes Daisy to the core, and everyone's kind of hoping that will be a calming influence for her. Luke's a little too young to be more than a crying lump, but Barney still spends the evening trying to teach him the high five to counteract the Mosby Lame with the Stinson/Scherbatsky Awesome.

Seeing their friends – _family _– is the exact boost they need before the return to the adventure.

That's what they call it, when they talk about it between them. It's for her work, yes, but it's not just that. It's _the adventure, their adventure. _Married life around the world. It's an adventure Barney never knew he wanted, and the one Robin always knew she did but was always afraid she'd never get.

No, not all of it is good. There's boredom and fatigue and fights that start on planes and that don't end until they board a new one. There's silent nights and homesickness, places that break their hearts, and dangerous places that put them both on edge. But there's also fights resolved in hotels beds, hands held in the most romantic places on earth, pictures taken, postcards sent to friends, ocean salt and sunburn. Gray hairs and wrinkled skin, but eyes that shine more brightly than they ever did before they knew each other. Before they knew that happy meant not settling for meaningless conquests or resigning themselves to work over love.

In the end, they fight in dozens of countries, have sex in several more and several times over (seriously, they should probably be talking to the Guinness Book of World Records people by now). But throughout their adventure, there was one thing that never did change.

In every time and in every way, in every city of every country they ever went together (or even apart), Barney Stinson and Robin Scherbatsky were irretrievably in love - and they left that mark on the world.


End file.
